New Music 2015 - Part 59 - Fara

Although not titled as such, here begin my thoughts on Cambridge Folk Festival 2015: it was first held in 1965 and, as this run is unbroken, this was its 51st edition. It was my first, however, despite the fact that we are the same age to within a matter of six weeks!
The music started 6pm on Sunday, using just Stage 2, for the early birds. That is not to say that the quality was in any way compromised. The opening act of the festival was a recently constituted five-piece hailing from Orkney and that is Fara.

Four of the members play fiddle, Jennifer Austin plays piano.

Jeana Leslie takes most of the lead vocals.

Their début release is the self-titled mini-album, released 20 December 2014. I don't usually buy music on impulse at festivals and suchlike. This was an exception. Listen below, then buy it.
It did cross my mind that this standard could be hard to sustain across four stages over the next three days. I soon forgot all about that, and almost everything else beyond my immediate surroundings. That is the hallmark of a really good festival.

New Music 2014 - Part 36 - Kate In The Kettle - Swimmings Of The Head

One quarter of Carthy Hardy Farrell Young, Scottish fiddle player and singer  Kate Young is the one that I know the least about live, having heard her play just one song! This is her soon-to-be-released album as Kate In The Kettle, about which more to follow very soon.

That is not to say that she doesn't write. She does.

I can tell you that, and not because of this in particular, my end of year lists are going to contain a prodigious amount of modern folk, roots and Americana - from both sides of the Atlantic. You have been warned. The journey is as fascinating as the destination, especially when the latter is still uncertain.

New Music 2014 - Part 35 - Rachel Sermanni - Live In Dawson City

Rachel Sermanni is an artist that I first experienced playing live at Deer Shed Festival 2012. Only subsequently, and as a direct result, did I become acquainted with her studio recordings. In a sense that circle is about to be completed for, at least in the UK and Europe, she releases a live album 'Live In Dawson City' on 13 October. 

It is, as were her previous recordings, released by Middle of Nowhere Recordings an independent label based in Ullapool in the north-western Highlands of Scotland. She also comes from the Highlands but Carrbridge, which is further east, south of Inverness.
The next thing to do, of course, is to acquire the recording and that brings me to another point. Is the cheapest legal option the best or that which one might reasonably conclude would give the artist the biggest share of the money that one spends?
I took this release as a test case:
Amazon.co.uk:
£10.99 (including free Super Saver delivery, so 2 - 3 working days)
Rachel Sermanni website:
£10 + £1 postage and packing. Secure payment via PayPal.
This is not rocket science is it? It is true that I didn't explore every avenue but, that said, I would hold that the second option is likely to benefit the artist (and the independent label) rather more. I went with this choice.
Sooner or later I'll actually get round to the music. The fact of the matter is that I know that the music is more than capable of speaking for itself. The venue for the recording is indeed real but also astonishingly remote. Carrbridge has a population of about 750 but is regularly served by both passenger railway and road to major cities within Scotland and beyond. Dawson City, population about 950, is in Yukon, Canada and only about 110 miles south of the Arctic Circle. Its foundation and the Palace Grand Theatre also, although since modernised due to neglect and necessity, date from the Klondike Gold Rush at the very end of the 19th century. The climate, aside from the extremes of light and dark that go with the latitude, is challenging to say the least. The town is built on permafrost but rarely a summer passes when the temperature does not exceed 30ºC!

New music, old music.

Folk music, roots music and all that is not for high days and holidays. It is for everyday and that is why I have chosen to mention this now. When the great and the good of the BBC decided that Mike Harding was "too long in the tooth" he had other ideas.
I'm currently listening to the 76th edition of the Mike Harding Folk Show and I haven't missed a single one. It is on-line so that is not a problem; you can listen to it anywhere at any time you choose. You can also listen to the shows on Mixcloud here but his own pages also provide a cornucopia of information about the artists played as well as links to forthcoming events such as folk clubs and festivals.
Another thing that I'm enjoying these days is the vital interchange of 'Americana' (home-grown or otherwise) across the Atlantic. This is apparent in the artist lists of all the festivals that I am attending.

The Mike Harding Folk Show Number 76 by Mike Harding on Mixcloud

Karine Polwart - Live @ Rook Lane Chapel, Frome

Following on from the success of the first Frome Folk Festival came the first visit to Frome of Scottish singer-songwriter Karine Polwart. Rook Lane Chapel is a wonderful venue and absolutely ideal for concerts such as this and there was nothing to disappoint a near sell-out audience. Support was provided by an up-coming artist from Bath, Beth Porter, who was playing solo (rather than with her varied-in-composition backing group 'The Availables') but that did not did not detract from the performance one bit.  Songs such as murder ballad 'Salty Water' are good in whatever format they are played. She announced that her début album is on course for release before the end of the year; there is an EP 'Red Floor #3' already released.
  
Karine and her two accomplices, her brother Steven and multi-instrumentalist Inge Thomson (originally from Fair Isle, no less), provided a lengthy and stellar set.

As well as the expected favourites it notably included at least five tracks that will be on her forthcoming fifth studio album: 'Traces' is due for release on August 13. Judging from what we heard yesterday evening it is going to be rather special and most certainly not apolitical. That is something artists only tend to do when they feel comfortable and the audience is already on-side, which it clearly was as demonstrated by two encores - the second of which was a audience sing-along cover of Abba's 'Waterloo'.
  
There were a couple of solo numbers and this one is Inge singing a traditional Shetland song accompanying herself on piano accordion.